Relationship building is one of the most fundamental ways to develop your business. By building relationships with your vendors and other key stakeholders, you cab bring in new customers while increasing awareness of your company’s offerings.

Your vendors, the people with whom you work directly on your products and services, are the ones who will benefit the most from your success. By taking the time to get to know them, you’ll find a whole host of opportunities you didn’t realize were there.

Always look for great ways to offer rewards and incentives to your vendors for their help in growing your business. Everyone wins. One of the ways you can accomplish this is by offering performance-based incentives that are much larger than their normal charges.

Here’s the step-by-step process for creating a partnership with a vendor:

1. 1. Approach all the vendors you do business with and offer an incentive that is based on performance;
   2. Put a generous incentive plan together from your vendor’s perspective that even takes their suggestions into account;
   3. Develop a clear, concise, and easy-to-track incentive plan. This will increase competition between vendors and ultimately yield higher performance levels;
   4. Promote subsequent sales rather than focusing solely on the initial sale. By doing this you can allocate more of the profit from the initial sale to your vendors and earn higher profits off the back-end products. Consider the following:
      • Boosting future sales;
      • Upselling better quality and more profitable products and services;
      • Cross-selling additional products.
   5. Create an incentive plan that is irresistible to your vendors by offering generous and exclusive compensation.

Think of all the vendors you work with and the creative ways you can design and implement an incentive plan that entices them to be part of your business. Find innovative ways to make the best use of their talents and connections and you will both reap the rewards.

Creating an incentive plan doesn’t have to be a complicated process. If you would like help, contact me for assistance in developing your incentive plan for maximum results.